Three months ago, guitarist Joe Satriani said he was “keeping Christmas and the first couple of months of next year open” for recording the next Chickenfoot album.

Now, frontman Sammy Hagar has confirmed that January 2014 is the target month to begin work. “It looks like January is on the agenda,” Hagar tells M Music & Musicians, in a just-published interview. “Joe’s been writing, and I’m writing lyrics at all times. He’s going to start sending me stuff and I’ll send him lyrics, and we’ll walk in with five or six ideas. As for the rest of the songs, we’ll create them on the spot with the four of us in a room.”

Hagar also talked about his new solo album, Sammy Hagar and Friends, gushing that one track, “Father Sun,” was his favorite among all the songs he’s written. “It’s the new Sammy Hagar!” he said. “It takes in the Montrose and Led Zeppelin influences on the heavy part, and on the other side it’s my island lifestyle with my feet in the sand. It’s who and what I am today.”